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Sarich leaks Oil from the ears

What do you think would happen if the top line on your team was Lance Bouma, Matt Stajan, and Tim Jackman? Well, you’d get your ass handed to you by the second-worst team in the league. You’d witness the team behind you in 9th place lose, and still knock you out of a playoff spot.

There was a point in this game were the Flames were out-shot by a 3-1 margin at 34-11 after two periods.  It was a bad, bad performance all around. Kipper played well for half the game, but alas even he fell apart in the second half of the second period.

Calgary’s top line was a combined -7 last night. Awesome.

Kiprusoff absolutely stole this game.

And with that performance the Flames find themselves in a playoff position (although tied for 9th) for the first time this season. Hockey is exciting again, for the first time in years, but I wonder how long it will last? You would think the youth of Calgary can only continue at this rate for not too much longer.

This says it all

I’ll take the one point in this game. The Flames were outplayed, especially in the third, and had to come back form 1-0 and 2-1 deficits. If it wasn’t for back-to-back power plays with five minutes left in the third Dallas would have won in regulation.

The single point means that Calgary is now two points back of Phoenix, which is okay because Phoenix is now in 7th place, and Calgary is 2 points back of L.A. for eighth. Got all that? This now means that the L.A. game Saturday night is a bigger game than the Dallas one was.

This really shouldn’t have been a 5-1 game, it was more of a 6-5 in overtime game. The score seemed losided because of Miika Kiprusoff. I’ve said this a lot before, but you see an highlight reel save and it’s almost old hat now. We expect miraculous saves, night in and night out. How this guy wasn’t an All Star this year is beyond me.

So a lot to talk about.

1. Kipper. 41 saves on 42 shots. A .975 save percentage. There was more posts and crossbars (on both sides) in this game than I can remember. I can remember 5, but I’m sure there was more. So why wasn’t he an All Star? He is currently 5th in wins – which is pretty good for a goalie on a team in 17th place overall. He is 5th in the league in Goals Against Average (among goalies with more than 30 games) and 7th in Save Percentage (30+ games). The best 5 goalies in the league? I’d have to say Henrik Lundqvist, Jonathan Quick, Tim Thomas, Miikka Kiprusoff, Jimmy Howard. Of course Lundqvist, Thomas and Howard all have fairly decent teams in front of them.
2. Flames. The Flames haven’t lost to Toronto in Calgary for nearly a decade. The win moves Calgary to within one point of 8th, and 3 points out of 6th. Thank you slumping Chicago! Next up? A huge game in Dallas. A win and you put 5 points between us and the Stars. A loss, and Dallas is one point behind with a game in hand.
3. Phaneuf. Dion’s hook lead to a penalty shot which lead to Paul Byron’s 3-1 insurance goal. That is kind of what broke open the gaem for the Flames as the Leafs had all the momentum at the time. I think the penalty shot was the 3rd shot of the period for Calgary. Also, I’m not sure why he got booed, because he under-performed when he was here? Because he got too friendly with other player’s wives/girlfriends? Because we clearly lost that trade? Because there was a lot of beer consumed for a Tuesday? (I’m just saying, there was no booing at the beginning of the night), I don’t get it. I would absolutely have traded him. But for White, Mayers, Hagman and Stajan? Ouch.

The Sedin sisters still waiting for Stanley

It’s always great to get a win when you did not expect it. The two points moved Calgary from 12th to 9th (tied with Colorado) and two points out of 8th.The only downside was that Mikael Backlund suffered an undisclosed upper body injury during the second period and did not return.

Calgary now faces Dion’s Phaneufs on Tuesday (a winnable game for sure) and then a huge game against Dallas on Thursday. Dallas plays today (Sunday) the the Flames could be back down to 10th by mid-afternoon.

Well the Flames got a point, with their backup goaltender, and got 4 of 6 points on the road. That’s a positive. Calgary has also increased their chance of making the playoffs to a staggering 25%. Which I don’t understand, since there are 5 teams all fighting for one spot and two months left. How does that work?

So even though they went went (essentially) two for three, they still remain in 11th place. Lame.

Here’s a badly Photoshopped photo of Jokinen eating his gotta-getta-goal burger. Craft on 11th actually has one about this size.

This was about as good a road game as you’re going to get. It kind of makes me wonder though, how much will they have left in the tank for the game against Phoenix? That’s a big game, and only one of the mediocre teams can come out on top of the 2-1 inevitable snoozefest.

Ryan Getzlaf cannot power his way through receding hairline.

You know, for a loss that was probably one of the best games I’ve seen for awhile. Reader: please don’t start thinking that these two teams matched up well only because they are equals in mediocrity… don’t take this away from me!

Calgary went down early, down by two in two painful minutes in the first period. The Flames kinda tried to pick it back up, but it was on the Captain’s shoulders  (and with a great feed by Olli) to tie things up. This gave Calgary the opportunity to – and this was frustrating to watch – play for the tie. Even though the single point wouldn’t help in the playoff race because Phoenix won. Again, don’t take this away from me!

Anyway, it went to overtime and then a shootout. It took 16 skaters to decide the fate of these two teams, which is one of the longest shootouts I can remember. I didn’t miss any of it because luckily the game was late and I had caught up to real time by the time the PVR ran out. Hooray for technology, hooray for first world problems!

Calgary beat a struggling (as much as Chicago struggles) Hawks to move to four points out of the final playoff spot. They are tied with Phoenix at 54, would have to leapfrog both Dallas and Colorado to even start to compete with Minnesota for that last playoff spot. Face it Feaster, we are certainly not in a position to “win now.”

This road trip is going to be a big one, and the Flames haven’t had a lot of success in Anaheim or San Jose lately, well… ever.

The Flames held their own through two periods, but they must have seen the respective clubs’ records when tied after two during the second intermission. The Flames are 4-6 when tied after 40, the Wings 9-2. Detroit came out to win the game and Calgary played not to lose, and that always ends up with the winners winning and losers losing.

Yes, we’re losers. Deal with it. SportsClubStats has our odds of making the playoffs at a measly 15%, and most-likely in 11th place.

Oh yeah, and Lee Stempniak is also injured. Good thing Matt Stajan returned from his mythical ankle injury!